A judge has decided that Prince Harry’s US visa application will remain private after he admitted using drugs in his controversial memoir.
The Duke of Sussex confessed to taking marijuana, cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms in his book Spare, which was released in January last year. The Heritage Foundation launched a lawsuit arguing that the Government should release records about the Duke’s visa application, stating it should be known if he declared his drug use.
The Washington-based foundation said called into question if Prince Harry had been properly vetted and if the right procedures had been followed given the “widespread and continuous” coverage of his drug use. The group said that US law “generally renders such a person inadmissible for entry” to the country.
In his scandalous memoir, Harry confessed that cocaine “didn’t do anything for me”, adding: “Marijuana is different, that actually really did help me.” He also recounts an experience with magic mushrooms, saying: “I stared at the bin. It stared back. ‘What-staring? ‘ Then it became… a head. I stepped on the pedal and the head opened its mouth. A huge open grin.”
Speaking about his use of hallucinogens during an online chat with trauma expert Gabor Maté, Harry explained: “It was the cleaning of the windscreen, the removal of life’s filters — these layers of filters. It removed it all for me and brought me a sense of relaxation, relief, comfort, a lightness that I managed to hold back for a period of time.”
US visa applications specifically asks the individual about current and past drug use, which can have a detrimental impact on the progress of the application. Prolific drug use can lead to applications being rejected, however immigration officers use their discretion against a range of factors, reports the Mirror.
However, a US judge has now ruled that Harry’s application should remain private. Carl Nichols ruled on Monday that “the public does not have a strong interest in disclosure of the duke’s immigration records”. He added: “Like any foreign national, the duke has a legitimate privacy interest in his immigration status.”
Judge Nichols said the duke’s privacy “outweighed” the public’s interest in disclosure of Prince Harry’s immigration records. The decision comes as the Duke joined a summit in the Big Apple to discuss the global mental health crisis facing young people with winners of the Diana Award.
Prince Harry is championing causes close to his heart and those associated with his late mother Diana, Princess of Wales on the solo east coast trip with two days of events during UN General Assembly High-Level Week and Climate Week.
Harry quit senior royal duties in the UK in January 2020, sending shockwaves around the world. He and his American wife Meghan Markle started a new life with their family in the US where they had hoped to develop their ‘Sussex Royal’ brand – before Buckingham Palace put a stop to it.
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